Marble Production Up By 57% in Maidan Wardak Province

Production of marble has increased by 57% in Maidan Wardan province,
the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum reports.

In an interview with Voice of America (VoA), the ministry’s
spokesperson Abdul Qadir Mutfi said the province has produced over 46,000 tons
of marbles during this fiscal year (1398), which indicates a 57% increase from
last year’s production.

“This year’s total production is higher by 16,883 tons than
last year’s,” said Mutfi.

The province had produced a total of 29,538 tons of marble
last year.

Figures from the ministry show that Maidan Wardak has
exported 1,879 squares meters of marble to Bakul, capital of Azerbaijan, and
3421 square meters to Astana city of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan had expressed interest in Afghanistan’s marbles
six years ago when the country announced it wanted to redesign the city of
Baku.

Maidan Wardak has 13 marble quarry and mineral deposits, four
of which are currently under extraction.

The extraction of the mineral deposits in the province are
carried by private companies.

Meanwhile, Afghan Ministry of Commerce and Industries
spokesperson Sameer Rasa told VoA that Afghanistan has exported $2.5mn worth of
marble to Iran, China, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Iraq during the first nine
months of the current fiscal year.

According to estimates from the Ministry of Mines estimates,
Afghanistan has a total capacity to extract 1.5bn tons of marble.

A preliminary forecast by the presidential office indicates
that the country’s marble mines are worth more than $150 billion, with about twenty-five extractive companies and 108 processing
companies currently operating in the sector.

However, marble, like other mines in the country, is
illegally mined in various provinces due to the growing insecurity. Nagarhar,
Herat and Helmand are provinces where marble is smuggled to neighboring
countries.

According to reports, Taliban are benefitting from illegal
extraction of marble in Sordak district of Helmand province.

The Afghan government has taken several measures to protect
the mines, including setting up a mine protection unit and suspending a number
mining projects in the provinces. However, due to increasing insecurity, the government
has not been able to prevent the smuggling of precious and semi-precious stones.